Structuring Sense: Volume III: Taking Form

Hagit Borer

Hagit Borer develops a new model of word formation, arguing that on the one hand the basic building blocks of language are rigid semantic and syntactic functions, while on the other hand they are roots, which in themselves are but packets of phonological information, and are devoid of both meaning and grammatical properties of any kind.

Structuring Sense: Volume III: Taking Form

Hagit Borer

Description

Structuring Sense explores the difference between words however defined and structures however constructed. It sets out to demonstrate over three volumes that the explanation of linguistic competence should be shifted from lexical entry to syntactic structure, from memory of words to manipulation of rules. Its reformulation of how grammar and lexicon interact has profound implications for linguistic, philosophical, and psychological theories about human mind and language. Hagit Borer departs from language specific constructional approaches and from lexicalist approaches to argue that universal hierarchical structures determine interpretation, and that language variation emerges from the morphological and phonological properties of inflectional material.

Taking Form, the third and final volume of Structuring Sense, applies this radical approach to the construction of complex words. Integrating research in syntax and morphology, the author develops a new model of word formation, arguing that on the one hand the basic building blocks of language are rigid semantic and syntactic functions, while on the other hand they are roots, which in themselves are but packets of phonological information, and are devoid of both meaning and grammatical properties of any kind. Within such a model, syntactic category, syntactic selection and argument structure are all mediated through syntactic structures projected from rigid functions, or alternatively, constructed through general combinatorial principles of syntax, such as Chomsky's Merge. The meaning
of 'words', in turn, does not involve the existence of lexemes, but rather the matching of a well-defined and phonologically articulated syntactic domain with conceptual Content, itself outside the domain of language as such. In a departure from most current models of syntax but in line with many philosophical traditions, then, the Exo-Skeletal model partitions 'meaning' into formal functions, on the one hand, and Content, on the other hand. While the former are read off syntactico-semantic structures as is usually assumed, Content is crucially read off syntactico-phonological structures.

Structuring Sense: Volume III: Taking Form

Hagit Borer

Author Information

Hagit Borer, Professor of Linguistics, Queen Mary, University of London

Hagit Borer is a Professor of Linguistics at Queen Mary, University of London. Prior to that, she held positions at the University of Southern California and at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her main research focuses on the interaction between syntactic structure and word structure, an area that she has pursued from a syntactic perspective, from a morphological perspective, from a semantic perspective, and from the perspective of child language acquisition.

Structuring Sense: Volume III: Taking Form

Hagit Borer

Reviews and Awards

"Combining provocative theoretical insights and detailed empirical investigation, this third volume is a highly significant contribution to Hagit Borer's grand project, developing an original and challenging conception of the nature of language that focuses on morphology but reaches far into fundamental considerations of syntax and semantics. A most impressive contribution, sure to be deservedly influential." --Noam Chomsky

"Wide-ranging and intricately argued, this final volume in Borer's monumental trilogy tackles the syntax of derived nominal in unprecedented depth and detail. This volume will be required reading for both syntacticians and morphologists for years to come." --Rochelle Lieber